Whekenui has arrived in Marlborough. Built for daily offshore work, the 24m service vessel is now supporting Blue Endeavour, New Zealand’s first open ocean salmon farm.
She is not your usual showpiece, yet Whekenui has a grace not typical of a working vessel.
Whekenui is built for one job: supporting Blue Endeavour, New Zealand King Salmon’s offshore pilot farm, located seven kilometres off Cape Lambert, outside the Marlborough Sounds. It is New Zealand’s first attempt at open ocean salmon farming, designed to operate in exposed water rather than sheltered inshore locations.
Delivered to Marlborough in October, Whekenui is now operating from Picton as the primary service vessel for the project. At just under 24 metres long and capable of carrying more than 100 tonnes, she is seen as necessary infrastructure.
Designed by Southern Ocean Solutions, an Australian owned marine design, construction, and service company, and built in Vietnam, Whekenui is configured for daily offshore work. Feed transport and discharge. Mooring support. Power supply. Mort recovery. Data retrieval. Crew transfer. This vessel is expected to operate when smaller boats cannot.
The hull is compact and efficient, shaped to maintain control and speed in rough conditions. Twin Cummins diesel engines deliver a working cruise of around 10 knots. Bollard pull sits at approximately nine tonnes. A 100kW bow thruster provides control around pens, moorings, and barges.
On deck, everything is functional. A Palfinger Marine crane provides full working coverage. Hydraulic hatches reduce manual handling. An integrated Akva feed system and mort recovery equipment reflect the vessel’s role at the centre of farm operations.
Accommodation, albeit functional, is self contained for five crew.
Whekenui supports the final build out of the Blue Endeavour site, including installation of the offshore mooring grid and the transfer of salmon from inshore nursery pens. Once operations scale up, this vessel becomes the daily link between shore and site.
She is built to turn up, work, and keep going.
Whekenui | Technical overview
- Owner: New Zealand King Salmon
- Role: Open ocean aquaculture service vessel
- Designer: Southern Ocean Solutions
- Builder: Z189 Shipyard, Vietnam
- Length overall: 23.9m
- Beam: 9.2m
- Depth: 3.5m
- Construction: Steel
- Cargo capacity: 100 tonnes
- Main engines: 2 × Cummins N855 diesel
- Cruising speed: 10 knots
- Maximum speed: 11.3 knots
- Bollard pull: approx. 9 tonnes
- Bow thruster: Schottel 100kW
- Crane: Palfinger Marine PK41002MD
- Crew: 5
